September 07, 2006
Stop Sign
Recently, on a city street I use often, two stop signs were removed changing a four way stop to a two way stop. At the very least I still find myself breaking at this intersection, but more often than not, I’ll come to a full stop. Thankfully drivers familiar with the area offer each other a measure of grace because many of us are trying to overcome the same habit. A few years ago on a county road the state highway department replaced a yield sign with a stop sign, but my mind still registered ‘yield’. Not surprisingly when I blew through the stop sign the State Patrolman was giving out tickets rather than grace. I’ve noticed plenty of skid marks on the church carpet as leaders replace and remove traditional ‘signs’ from their congregations. Personally I prefer new signs and directions seasoned with a little grace.
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Gail;
----Have you ever thought about how involved our lives are with signs? The Lord even talked about reading the sky like a sign to know the coming weather. Our clothes are signs. I have two fourteen year old daughters. Each gives a different signal about themselves with their clothes, sheesh, what do I do!?! One paints a sign on her face. She calls it make-up. Char and I each wear a sign on a finger of our left hand that makes one statement of major importance about who we are. There are numerous signs along the road that have such specific meanings that we must memorize them and pass a test about them in order to drive. Words are also signs with specified meanings, but are not used with as much universal precision as road signs.
----It is also interesting to ponder about who gives signs their meanings and who gets to put them out in front of us. Road signs are certainly given their meanings and hung about by the government. Words, rings, clothes, make-up, etc get their meanings by popular useage.
----Although an authority, such as a government, can move signs about the roads and keep our respect (more or less)because of the weight of the law, they would lose our respect in an instant if they applied their authority to the direction of the signs that get their meaning by common useage. Although the boundary in many areas is blurred, we Americans are used to the freedom of applying meaning to things in our lives. At least the older ones among us are.
----The politically correct element that has been percolating to the surface of our society like a bad pond gas has been applying much more than its share of authority to the signs of popular meaning for the last 35 years. The children who first experienced in school this decided effort to change our moors and norms are now in their fourties. Like a bad drug, this abuse of authority has become normal to them, and they are now stretching its envelope even further, needing more of it. I have watched this drunkeness with over-bearing authority settle over the world like a suffocating blanket. Nobody will escape its effect in the short run, because too few are willing to stand up to stand it down.
----But thanks to our God, our loving Father, He is sending His Son into this world once again to settle once for all just Who it is that has the authority to tell others what signs mean and where they will be placed! For those of us who look to Him for the setting of the norm and allow our brothers and sisters to do the same, there is eternal escape from the suffocating blanket.
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